I remember: Jospeh Angelini, Jr.

(Note: This post will remain at the top of the page until 9/12.)

Joseph Angelini Jr., age 38 of Lindenhurst, NY, died heroically on September 11, 2001 in the World Trade Center terrorist attack. He was a New York firefighter with Ladder Co. 4



Joseph Angelini Jr.
A Firefighter Passionate About Family, Gardening

October 22, 2001

Joseph Angelini Jr. may have lived for the New York City Fire Department, but he didn't hang around when his tour ended.

"Gotta get home to the kids," he'd tell the guys in Manhattan's Ladder Co. 4 before heading to the 6:33 p.m. train to Lindenhurst.

Angelini's wife, Donna, has scheduled a memorial service for today to help 7-year-old Jennifer, 5-year-old Jacqueline and 3-year-old Joseph Angelini III to finally understand that he won't be coming home anymore.

"My son asks everyone he sees in uniform, 'Did you find my daddy, did you find my daddy?'" Donna Angelini said Friday.

The seven-year department veteran followed in the footsteps of his father, Joseph Angelini Sr., 63, who was the senior member of Brooklyn's Rescue Co. 1 and also perished in the World Trade Center attacks.

The younger Angelini, 38, was assigned to a house that protects New York's theater district. Its motto: "Never miss a performance."

But at home, he was a cook, craftsman and avid gardener who grew pumpkins, zucchini, eggplants and hot peppers and filled the house with the smells of pizza and focaccia.

"He was the air in my lungs, and now that air is taken away from me," Donna Angelini said. "I keep waiting for him to come off a 24 [hour shift] and come through the door and say, 'You wouldn't believe what happened to me today.'"

Angelini also is survived by his mother, Anne, a grandmother, Mary, sister Annmarie Bianco and brother, Michael, all of Lindenhurst; sister Mary Angelini of Washington D.C.; and by seven nieces and nephews.

A memorial service will be held today at 11 a.m. at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Roman Catholic Church in Lindenhurst.
-- Elizabeth Moore (Newsday)

CNN.com profile of Joe Jr.

Living Tribute to Joseph Angelini, Jr.

Joe's father, Joe Sr. also died that day:
The Veteran and His Son

Joseph J. Angelini Sr. and his son, Joseph Jr., were firefighters, and neither survived the twin towers' collapse. "If he had lived and his son had died, I don't think he would have survived," said Alfred Benjamin, a firefighter at Rescue Company 1 in Manhattan who was partnered with Mr. Angelini for the last six months.

The elder Mr. Angelini, 63, was the most veteran firefighter in the city, with 40 years on the job. He was tough and "rode the back step" like everyone else. His 38-year-old son, who worked on Ladder Company 4 on 48th Street, was on the job for seven years.

"If you mentioned retirement to Joey, it was like punching him," Mr. Benjamin said. Joseph Jr. was proud of his father's reputation and tried to copy him any way he could, said Joseph Jr.'s wife, Donna.

And they never gave up their tools. "Think about climbing 20 stories with bunker gear, ropes, hooks, halogens and other different types of tools and somebody wants to borrow a tool -- no way," Mr. Benjamin said. "You ask them what they need done and you do it for them. You carried that tool all the way up there, so you're going to use it. If they thought they were going to need a tool, they should have carried it up. Joey Sr. always said carry your own weight. He always carried his."

Joseph Jr. applied to the department 11 years ago. He got called seven years ago. "It was the proudest day for my father-in-law. It was a great opportunity," said Donna Angelini. "His father was a firefighter and he wanted to be one, too."

Mr. Angelini, who had four children, taught Joseph Jr. carpentry. Often they worked on projects together, including a rocking horse. Joseph Jr., who had three children, had started building a dollhouse for one of his daughters. Unfinished, it is sitting on his workbench.

Joseph Angelini, Sr.
The quilt

A brother, Firefighter Michael Angelini, was there as well, but, in a move that probably saved his life, left when asked to help carry out the body of the Rev. Mychal Judge, the fire department's chaplain.

From Newsday:

Between Funeral and 'Pile'

September 21, 2001

Michael's choice: remain with his mother, Anne, in Lindenhurst and support his family during the wake, today, and the funeral, tomorrow, for his father, New York firefighter Joey Angelini, 63; or, return to The Pile to continue searching for his missing brother, New York firefighter Joey Angelini Jr., 38.

Michael, 33, knew yesterday that his mother and Joey Jr.'s wife, Donna, his two sisters and his nieces and nephews needed him, needed a strong, grown, male Angelini nearby, perhaps as much or more than he needed to be nearer his brother. "It's hard to figure out what's the right place to be in," he said, already having decided to stay with the family. "I want so much to go back there."

Michael works for the Fire Patrol of New York, which operates under the New York Board of Underwriters, protecting the interests of insurers during and in the aftermath of commercial property fires. Wearing the same firefighting gear, except for the distinctive red helmet that denotes Fire Patrol, he responded to the World Trade Center disaster last Tuesday morning, as did his father, a 40-year FDNY veteran assigned to Rescue 1, and his brother, of Ladder Co. 4 in the Theater District. "We were all in the same area, and none of us knew it," he said.

In the lobby of one of the stricken towers, a fire supervisor suddenly ordered him out of the building. They passed firefighters who had just encountered the body of department chaplain Father Mychal Judge. Michael helped carry Judge away. "... but then my officer grabbed me and said, 'Let's go!'" he said. "We ended up a block or two north on West Murray Street."

Michael entertained a slender hope that his brother might have finished his tour early and gone home. He suspected otherwise, and he learned later that afternoon that Joey had done what his father would have done and what so many other firefighters did who were supposed to be ending their tours at 9 a.m. They went to work.

Once a jokester and a partygoer, Joey Jr. had undergone personality changes increasingly noticeable to Michael during the past seven years, since he had joined the department and Donna gave birth to the first of their three children, Jennifer. He had worked previously as an electrician with the Transit Authority. "I didn't want him to leave Transit," said his mother, "because they were about to make him a foreman. But, for some reason, he switched over to the fire department."

"Since then," Michael said, "I saw him taking on more and more of my father's traits. Before, we used to go out a lot, he and I. He was silly, funny. Now, getting him to go out was like pulling teeth. I tell old stories to guys he worked with, and they'll look at me like I'm talking about somebody they don't know. He had become so, like, straight. He just wanted to be with his family. He was showing more and more of that integrity, that seriousness, like my father.

"Three things were important to my father: his family, the church and the department, and I'm not sure in what order. My father was honest to a fault, religious. I remember walking back from the store with him. I was only little. He realized that the counter girl had given him 30 cents too much in change, and we had to walk all the way back. I mean, it was almost ridiculous. Joey was becoming more like that. It was good to watch, but it's hard to live up to."

The elder Angelini was in special operations that morning, and Michael hoped he too might have been sent elsewhere, but he really knew better. His father was legendary in the department for loving the work, for loving "to get dirty," for loving "making a grab [rescuing somebody]," for routinely walking out of a mostly extinguished inferno and lighting a cigarette while younger firefighters lay sprawled around him, exhausted.

Earlier this year, at a Holy Name Society communion breakfast tribute for his 40th anniversary as a firefighter, the short, wiry, gray-haired Angelini resisted efforts by his fellow firefighters to get him to wear more of his medals. "They convinced him to put on maybe a third of them," Michael said. "Then he said, 'Stop. I'm tired of pinning these on.'

"He kept them in the back of a drawer, in a box," Michael said. "He didn't tell us about half of them. He didn't talk about what he did. You would be eating dinner across from him and notice that he looked dif- ferent, like, strange, and then you would realize that his face was all red, and his eyebrows were completely gone, and his hairline had receded. He was burned. You would say, 'What happened to you?' And he would say, 'Aw, something flashed over me.'

"At the site, all week, guys were joking about him finding a pocket and eventually walking out. They said to me, 'He was probably buried in a void, and as soon as he runs out of cigarettes he's gonna come walking out.'"

Rescue workers found the body of Joey Angelini on Monday. He had been listed as missing since the day after the attack. Joey Jr. still is missing. After tomorrow's funeral Mass at Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Lindenhurst, Michael probably will return to the site.
--Ed Lowe (Newsday Columnist)

Attacked.

The Colombian hostage rescue: Aftermath

UPDATED WITH VIDEO TRANSLATION
Please scroll down
Yesterday I stated that the hostage rescue by Colombia's military has changed the political landscape in South America. Last Wednesday Investor's Business Daily looked at some of the actors.

It's really early to explore the implications, but here are some of the more immediate:

1. Colombia has undermined the FARC to the point of having it on the run, killing its top leaders, and infiltrating its topmost ranks. At its height, the FARC controlled over 30% of Colombia's territory and terrorized the entire country. Colombia is about to end its decades-long civil war, and the good guys are winning.

While the really hard work is about to start - i.e., ending the stranglehold of the cocaine trade - the victory opens the possibility that that, too, can be attained.

2. The FARC started as the military wing of the pro-Moscow Colombian Communist Party and has remained aligned with Communists in Latin America, including Hugo Chavez.

(Please don't come telling me that Chavez is not a Communist. He declared himself a Communist on January 2007, as this laudatory article at the Guardian states,

"Socialism or death - I swear it," he said last week, and declared himself a communist.)

This is a blow to Communism in Latin America. To use Esteban Lijalad's words, "Today Che died".

3. Appeasement never works, and the only way to defeat terror is through relentless, calculated, strategic, effective force. This carries great implications not only for Colombia and Latin America, but also on the war on terror.

The BBC

The rescue has vindicated Mr Uribe's uncompromising position with respect to negotiating with the Farc and justified his refusal to make concessions in order to gain the release of hostages.

4. Hugo Chavez's dream of heading a Bolivarian empire in Latin America has been dealt a huge blow. The FARC, one of his key allies, is defeated. As Ingrid Betancourt herself said,

"agradezco los esfuerzos de Chavez, pero debe saber que los Colombianos elegimos a Uribe, no a las FARC".
(my translation:) "I appreciate Chavez's efforts, but he should learn that we Colombians elected Uribe, not the FARC."

5. Just as the bad guys get together - as Chavez supports the FARC, Hezbollah, and Iran - the good guys also get together for training and technology: The US has funded the Colombian government's efforts in its war against terror to the tune of $600 million/yr in security and antinarcotics aid (h/t Betsy), and Israel (h/t Atlas) provided training:

The Israeli consultation was focused mainly on intelligence issues, special operations and integration and coordination between different security elements. This was in order to prepare them for a coordinated and productive campaign within a short period of time.

6. However, it can not be emphasized enough that it was the Colombians themselves who actually planned, executed, and succeeded in a months-long operation, and who will continue to do the heavy lifting.

Clarification: To give you an idea of why point #6 is so very important, Simon Romero of the NYT summarizes the situation in one sentence:

The mission would require near perfect execution by a military that only a few years ago could rarely be trusted.

That is a hugely significant development, both in the symbolic sense, and in the strategic implications. It marks a new stage in the history of Latin America.

UPDATE
As to the rumors circulated by Swiss public radio and their unnamed sources, clearly the Swiss should stick to reporting on cuckoo clocks. Daniel casts a jaundinced eye on the Swiss.

UPDATE 2: Translation of Operation Check: Images from Ingrid Betancourt's rescue
Macker sent this video of the rescue, asking that I translate it:


Translation: Please credit me if you use this translation. Thank you.

Operation Check (as in chess): Images from Ingrid Betancourt's rescue
13:23:00 [Voice off camera] "...from this side... hold...hold...backlighting...backlighting..."

13:24:00 [Reporter, now in front of camera, approaching man in long-sleeve t-shirt] "Commander, may I ask you only one question?"
[FARC commander] "No, no, there's a rule and I'd be violating a rule."
[Reporter] "Allow me, only one question. Only one question, yes?"
[FARC commander] "Ask me in the helicopter." (chuckles)
[Reporter] "But it'll be too noisy. Let me ask you a question, so it shows."
[FARC commander] "No, it is..."
[Reporter] "Real easy one, Commander."
[FARC commander] "It's against the rules."
[Reporter] "Commander, one question, please."
[FARC commander, laughing] "No, it'd really be a mistake for me to give a..."

Video cuts him off.

Camera zooms to the hostages: man wearing black t-shirt, Ingrid Betancourt wearing hat, tall man in sleeveless t-shirt & baseball cap.

[Reporter, again off camera, while the tall man's hands are tied] "...of prisoners at the hands of the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces [i.e., the FARC]. the people's army. We'll have the chance to talk with the three Americans being held by the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces. On politics, we can't talk about politics. Get closer [to the tall man], get closer."

13:27:30 [Tall man, getting closer to the camera] "Tell my family, my family, the whole world." [gets taken away]
[Reporter] "On politics, we can't broadcast, we can't have the group of prisoners at the hands of the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces, we can't..."

13:27:45 [Hostage with mustache, approaching reporter] "Yes, excuse me. I only have one thing to say: I have been chained for ten years. I am Lieutenant Malagon, of the glorious Colombian National Army, [voice breaks] kidnapped for many reasons by this guerilla."

13:28:01 [Reporter] "Words by Lieutenant Malagon. We can't broadcast them directly, we can't quote them but we know the suffering."
[Lt. Malagon] "They should be broadcast, because I have something very important to state...."

Gets cut off.

13:28:29 [Walking to helicopter]

13:29:11 [Lt. Malagon says something, voice drowned by helicopter noise.]

13:29:12 [Reporter] "We understand, but the restrictions, the press is restricted, it's not allowed."

13:29:31-13:31:49 [Sound off]

Once in the helicopter, Betancourt crying, hostages laughing, hugging, thumbs up. Betancourt & other hostage holding each other. Helicopter noise, unintelligible voices.

[Man's voice] "My God, man, thanks."
[Betancourt] "Let's give thanks for this moment."
[Man] "Who do you give thanks to, mother?"

Betancourt shakes her head.

[Man] "I always expected this, always. Ten years waiting! Ten years expecting it!"

Sound gets cut off.
13:38:45 Video ends.

Welcome, Power Line, American Power, Dr Melissa Clouthier, Conservative Syndicate, Irish Spy and Belmont Club readers!

Crossposted



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My "breath of the beast" moment

In tomorrow's podcast, our guest will be Yaacov Ben Moshe of Breath of the Beast blog.

Yaacov explains,

We always get a warning that is clear and unequivocal when evil is stalking us. It is up to us to notice. Warnings are all too easy to dismiss. It is a grave responsibility to pay heed to real warnings. It seems so much easier to convince yourself that the warning is not for you, or that the danger is remote and small.

When I was five or six years old, in first grade, my parents enrolled me in an all-girls Catholic school in Puerto Rico. At that time many Cubans had had to exile themselves from Cuba and arrived in Puerto Rico with only the clothes they were wearing. They were not allowed to leave with any personal property at all, including their wedding bands. If the wedding band didn't come off, it was cut off at the airport.

The nuns in my school took in several Cuban girls on a full scholarship basis (the scholarship part was revealed to me by one of the nuns years later after she had left the convent). Some of those girls were missing a parent. One of the girls was being raised by her maternal grandparents. The same thing happened with other Cuban families that had arrived recently.

Even as a very young child I could understand that this was not due to a divorce or a voluntary separation from the missing parent: it was due because the missing parent was either imprisoned by the Cuban government or dead.

The father of one of the girls had been imprisoned and later was ransomed at very great expense by the man's relatives. By the time he was released, he had been tortured in a Cuban concentration camp to the point that he had no muscle control.

I was seven years old, and could see that the man on the wheelchair who could not even close his mouth so the drool would stop staining his shirt was not an old man. But he was in worse shape than anyone, no matter how old, that I had met up to then. At that young age, it was the first time that I saw that there is evil in the world, and that it can and will harm us.

In my late teens/early adult years I was much more liberal than I am now, and was inclined to believe that we could possibly "get along" with our enemies if certain criteria were met; that is, if our enemies were explained our point of view and the reasons to believe that we're all created equal, they would, as reasonable people do, come to an understanding and put down their weapons. My judgement was clouded; I was ignoring evil.

How I had come to that, considering the evidence I had at age seven, I can not really explain, other than the following:

Clearly I was an idiot.

Fast-forward to September 11, 2001.

On September 11, I didn't even know that the World Trade Center had been attacked until the moment the telephone rang.

I had been out early at the physical therapists' gym, where I went early every other day after recovering from a neck and back injury in a car accident. My son's school was scheduled to start the following day, so I brought him with me. Most of the time I play CDs in the car, so I had no news at all.

While I was at the gym, one of the therapists came in, and said, "I just heard on the radio that an airplane collided with the World Trade Center". Someone remembered the time in the 1930s when a small plane flew into the Empire State building, and we just went back to whatever we were doing.

After I was done at the gym, we drove home, and, since I don't have the TV on during the daytime, I sat down to have a cup of coffee before taking a shower, when the phone rang. My friend E. was hysterical, crying and screaming, "DID YOU SEE THAT? DID YOU SEE THAT?" She was able to calm down enough to tell me to turn on the TV; when I did, the first tower to collapse had come down and WABC NY - Peter Jennings was talking - was starting to replay it.

I had gone through the WTC every work day for seven years.

Fifty thousand people worked in the WTC, hundreds of thousands went through the building.

Suddenly the phone was on the floor. I could hear E. on the other end. I had to grab a chair and sit down before I could pick up the phone.

I knew we were in the presence of evil. Evil that can and will harm us.

In tomorrow's podcast, Yaacov will talk about his blog, evil, and Israel's survival.

The chat will be open by 11AM, and the call-in number is (646) 652-2639. Join us!





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The USS New York sails tomorrow

The USS New York will be formally dedicated tomorrow. The event will be webcast at 9AM Central.

Fron the NY Sun editorial: The USS New York

Congratulations are in order to the captain and crew of the United States Ship New York, which will be formally dedicated according to Navy tradition tomorrow when a bottle of champagne is broken across her bow at the New Orleans boatyard where it was built. A Navy press release reports the warship, an amphibious transport dock ship that can carry a landing force of 800 Marines, is named New York "in honor of the state, the city and the victims of Sept. 11, 2001." The release says 7.5 tons of steel salvaged from the World Trade Center wreckage was melted and formed into the bow stem of the ship, symbolizing "the spirit and resiliency of the people of New York." The ship's first captain is himself a New Yorker, Commander F. Curtis Jones, of Binghamton. This is no small vessel — 684 feet long, it has a crew of 360 sailors and three Marines.
...
The Navy on Saturday will christen the New York, named in honor of the state, the city, and the victims of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, during a ceremony at Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding facilities in New Orleans. A unique characteristic of the ship is that 7.5 tons of steel salvaged from the World Trade Center wreckage was incorporated into the construction process.

The ship was built by Northorp Grunman Ship Systems. Here's the Wikipedia page.

Congratulations!

UPDATE
Rising from the ashes



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Chavez goes too FARC, and the morning's items

Gustavo Coronel explains why This time Chavez went too FARC

We should structure a military alliance against the United States”. On the basis of this proposal the mighty armies of Cuba, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Dominica and Venezuela plus the forces of observer Ecuador should come together to crush, if need be, the imperialistic monster, the U.S. A few hours later only Daniel Ortega, the Nicaraguan president, was talking still tough. Ecuador had quickly rejected this strange proposal while the other member countries remained speechless.

Just because you can buy them doesn't mean they're are crazy as you.
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More Democrat scandals, this time on the Obama campaign:Obama bagman is sent to jail over $3.5m payment by British tycoon

An undeclared $3.5 million (£1.8 million) payment from a corrupt Iraqi-British businessman has landed Barack Obama’s former fundraiser behind bars.

The payment, disclosed in court papers, is the first time that Mr Obama’s long-serving bagman Antoin “Tony” Rezko, a Syrian immigrant to the United States, has been linked to Nadhmi Auchi, the Iraqi-born billionaire who is one of Britain’s richest men. The relationship is a potential embarrassment for Mr Obama, who has made his opposition to the Iraq war a central plank of his campaign.

Court papers describe Mr Rezko as a close friend of Mr Auchi. The two are involved in a large Chicago land development together. But it is unclear how long the two men have known each other or whether they were linked before the 2003 Iraq war. Neither side would discuss their relationship.

The Times has, however, discovered state documents in Illinois recording that Fintrade Services, a Panamanian company, lent money to Mr Obama’s fundraiser in May 2005.
...
Mr Rezko, to be tried for corruption this month, had his bail revoked on Monday after he disobeyed a court’s instructions to keep it informed of changes to his finances. Prosecutors feared that he could try to flee abroad.
...
According to prosecution documents Mr Rezko tried to persuade unnamed Illinois officials to help Mr Auchi to get a US visa after he was convicted of fraud in France. Mr Obama’s aides deny that he was approached.

Mr Rezko has been indicted for pressuring companies seeking state business for kickbacks and campaign contributions, although none for Mr Obama. He was granted bail in October 2006. He told a judge that he had no access to overseas money. But in April 2007 Mr Auchi’s business, General Mediterranean Holding (GMH), wired $3.5 million to Mr Rezko from a bank account in Beirut via a law firm.

The Chicago businessman has already been an embarrassment to Mr Obama’s campaign. The presidential challenger has tried to dampen criticism by paying $150,000 to charity to make up for donations from Mr Rezko. The Illinois senator has said that he made a “bone-headed mistake” to get involved in a property deal with Mr Rezko at a time when he was known to be under investigation.

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Since I'm not a psychologist or a psychiatrist I don't subscribe to the theory that everything can be explained by narcissism (there's the influence of culture, and plenty of greed and lust to go around, for instance) - my friend M. believes most things have almost nothing to do with narcissim, and at times I agree with M. - but Dr. Krauthammer is right on the money when he looks at Clinton's Legacy of Desperation and Narcissim vis-a-vis Bill's performance in South Carolina.
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Dr. Sowell takes a look at McCain's straight lies while Doug Russ checks out The Time Tunnel. On the other hand, the Fox News panel says that McCain is right and Romney hedged on the surge:


Betsy asks, Can McCain make peace with conservatives?
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A plea from Tom Burnett Sr. to the wonderful people of Somerset regarding the proposed Flight 93 memorial.
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At GM's Corner, You rotten, chauvinist scum!



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U.S. Thwarts 19 Terrorist Attacks Against America Since 9/11, and today's roundup

Via Larwyn, from the Heritage Foundation, U.S. Thwarts 19 Terrorist Attacks Against America Since 9/11

Thwarted Attacks:
Richard Reid, December 2001
Jose Padilla, May 2002
Lackawanna Six, September 2002
Iyman Faris, May 2003
Virginia "Jihad" Network, June 2003
Dhiren Barot, August 2004
James Elshafay and Shahawar Matin Siraj, August 2004
Yassin Aref and Mohammed Hossain, August 2004
Umer Hayat and Hamid Hayat, June 2005
Levar Haley Washington, Gregory Vernon Patterson, Hammad Riaz Samana, and Kevin James, August 2005
Michael C. Reynolds, December 5, 2005
Mohammad Zaki Amawi, Marwan Othman El-Hindi, Zand Wassim Mazloum, February 2006
Syed Haris Ahmed and Ehsanul Islam Sadequee, April 2006
Narseal Batiste, Patrick Abraham, Stanley Grant Phanor, Naudimar Herrera, Burson Augustin, Lyglenson Lemorin, and Rotschild Augstine, June 2006
Assem Hammoud, July 2006
Liquid Explosives Plot, August 2006
Fort Dix Plot, May 2007
JFK Plot, June 2007
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, March 2007

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Talk About Planted Questions!!

How fitting. CNN pulls out someone not to simply ask a question about Iran, but with absolute moral authority given her son's service. And just as we learn that the IAEA has confirmed Iran's having installed 3,000 centrifuges. CNN works to undermine our ability to respond just as it may become critical. Great, just great! Thanks, CNN.

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Via Maria, Soviet Russia before photoshop
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Drug Smuggler Shot By Agents Compean and Ramos Is Indicted

Drug smuggler Osvaldo Aldrete Davila (pictured, via KVIA), who was shot in the butt while fleeing from federal agents Jose Alonso Compean and Ignacio Ramos in 2005, was arrested today in El Paso on smuggling charges.

Aldrete Davila's a self-confessed drug dealer, folks.
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Mark Fuhrman's Radio Show Axed because he was the only local media seriously talking about the ongoing River Park Square fraud (Upwards of $100M) where the citizens of Spokane are paying $2.5M per year.

You would think Spokane was in New Jersey.
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Wolf Howling has more on the Outrageous Sharia brutality in Saudi Arabia I posted about last evening.
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Annapolis: The very definition of antisemitism
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CBS Says Dan Rather Is Nuts
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Norman Mailer, Architecture Critic?
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"Pounds, baby, pounds!"
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Today's video: Gordon Chang on China, from Commentary Magazine

Gordon Chang is the author of



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Stop the Crescent Memorial blogburst, and today's items

At GM's Corner, Stop the Memorial Blogburst: Support Tom Tancredo’s call to scrap the crescent memorial
Here's the contact info:
Secretary Kempthorne's phone number is 202-208-7351.
Snail-mail: Hon. Dirk Kempthorne, Secretary of Interior
Office of the Secretary
Rm. 6156, ms7229-MIB
1849 C St, NW
Washington, DC 20240-0001
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We're popular!
Now EU leaders are Doing the Sarkozy

In France "Sarkozy l'Américain" went from a derisive nickname to a compliment in the six months since his election. Speaking openly of his admiration for the U.S., the new President works closely with Washington on Iran, Kosovo and other issues. He vacationed in New Hampshire this summer. His moving address to a joint session of Congress last week sealed the rapprochement. Then this weekend, Chancellor Angela Merkel paid the first visit by a German Chancellor to the Bush ranch in Crawford to talk about Iran's nuclear program.

So Monday night, in his first major speech on foreign policy since moving into 10 Downing Street, Mr. Brown sought to out-Sarkozy the Frenchman. "It is no secret that I am a lifelong admirer of America," he said in London. "I have no truck with anti-Americanism in Britain or elsewhere in Europe. I believe that our ties with America -- founded on values we share -- constitute our most important bilateral relationship." In noting the recent pro-U.S. tilt across the Channel, Mr. Brown said, "It is good for Britain, for Europe and for the wider world that today France and Germany and the European Union are building strong relationships with America."

That's what happens when George W. Bush squanders the good faith of the EUros...
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The Fraud That Is Benazir Bhutto, The Taliban And The Leftists Who Love Her
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You must be a legal resident to get a driver's license in Mexico
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Variety: Writers' Strike Rush Limbaugh's Fault?
Not to worry, they'll get around to blaming Bush soon enough.

Through the back door:

Socialized Medicine through the back door:
Doug Ross explains SCHIP for Dummies and Self-Employed Woodworkers.

Mark Steyn knocks on the woodworker part of the story.

And here's the punchline:

"And in order to get enough money to pay for this, it would require 22 million new smokers."

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Terrorist memorial through the back door:
At the crescent of death, Why only 38 Memorial Groves?
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One more push towards the Fairness Doctrine, through the back door:
Republicans rule radio but Democrats fight back
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Another U.N. Power Grab through the back door:
What would Reagan do? On the Law of the Sea Treaty, we know the answer

Such developments only serve to reinforce the concerns President Reagan rightly had about the central, and abiding, defect of the Law of the Sea Treaty: its effort to promote global government at the expense of sovereign nation states--and most especially the United States. One of the prime movers behind LOST, the late Elisabeth Mann Borgese of the World Federalist Association (which now calls itself Citizens for Global Solutions), captured what is at stake when she cited an ancient aphorism: "He who rules the sea, rules the land." A U.N. publication lauding her work noted that Borgese saw LOST as a "possible test-bed for ideas she had developed concerning a common global constitution."

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Charlie Gibson might be shown the back door if he keeps it up:

CHARLES GIBSON, ABC ANCHOR: The U.S. military reports the fourth straight month of decline in troop deaths, 66 American troops died in September, each a terrible tragedy for a family, but the number far less than those who died in August. And the Iraqi government says civilian deaths across Iraq fell by half last month.

As War Dragged On, Coverage Tone Weighed Heavily on Anchors:

By training their powerful spotlight on the chaos gripping Iraq, the anchors were arguably contributing to the political downfall of a president who had seemed to be riding high when he won his second term.

But not to worry: Howard Kurtz has been told:

To Kurtz's obvious frustration, his guests - Robin Wright of the Washington Post and Barbara Starr of CNN - both supported the press burying this extremely positive announcement.

Watch:

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Al Jazeera through the YouTube back door:
YouTube Deepens Commercial Relationship With Al Jazeera
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Sharia law through the Med School Back door:
Muslim medical students refuse to learn about alcohol or sexual diseases:

Some Muslim students claim studying sex and alcohol related diseases is 'offensive'.
...
Professor Peter Rubin, chairman of the GMC's education committee, said: 'Examples have included a refusal to see patients who are affected by diseases caused by alcohol or sexual activity, or a refusal to examine patients of a particular gender.'

Spare them their feelings and kick them out of med school, then.
------------------------------------------------------
Special thanks to Larwyn for the links.


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Friedman dreams of Kumbaya with fireworks

Updated
Since my birthday is on September 13, I would love to think 9/11 never happened.

Well, here comes Thomas Friedman declaring 9/11 Is Over and says that We can't afford to keep being this stupid! because "we're about the Fourth of July".

Friedman's world is reduced to singing Kumbaya while the fireworks go off in the distance, simply because we're smart enough not to worry about those explosions going off in faraway places.

Navel gazing, indeed.

A. J. Strata points out,

Friedman’s little fantasy world exists because many faced reality and dealt with the threats facing this nation.

As Wizbang says,

Our liberal friends wish that Islamofascism would just disappear--or, failing that, that we pretend that it disappeared.

After all, Islam is peace; the thing is, as Robert Spencer explained when he was my podcast guest, radical Islam's idea of peace is for the entire world to be under their thumb.

Rick Moran has more on The Unbearable Lightness of Tom Friedman's Thinking

But there might be hope for Tom. In his article, he recognizes that the free Cuban government healthcare system is a failure:

I will not vote for any candidate who is not committed to dismantling Guantanamo Bay and replacing it with a free field hospital for poor Cubans.

Free, American-government-provided healthcare for all!

For the time being, Tom's all warm inside ignoring those pesky terrorists overseas.

I will not be surprised if Tom's next plea will be to ask us to live with the Iranian bomb.
---------------------------------------------------------------
As a side note,
Friedman complains that,

I still can't get uninterrupted cellphone service between my home in Bethesda and my office in D.C.

My son was able to talk on his cell phone all the way while we drove on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel, completely uninterrupted even when we were in the tunnel (which means we were under water).

Get a better phone, Tom.

Update:
More on cell phones from Gina Cobb:

On September 11, 2001, cell phone service was reasonably adequate. Cell phone service and airphone service allowed Todd Beamer and other men and women to make desperate calls after Middle Eastern men hijacked their planes. Phone service, by cell phone and otherwise, was also adequate to allow men and women to call from the World Trade Center to say heart-wrenching goodbyes to their families and to beg for someone to save them.

We didn't need better cell phone service on 9/11. We needed so much more. We needed the kind of efforts that might have kept four passenger planes from being hijacked by Islamic terrorists to begin with.

Technorati: Thomas Friedman
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Take your wreath and shove it, Mahmoud

I did a roundup for Pajamas Media first thing this morning and then had to attend to other matters. (Yes, that You talking to me? was my idea.)

As I posted this morning at PJM, early this morning the story was,

On the same day that the Iranian air force commander announced that Iran has drawn plans to bomb Israel, NY Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly revealed that the Bloomberg administration was in discussions to escort Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Ground Zero. Mahmoud won't get there , but he will speak at Columbia University after addressing the UN on Monday.

The multi-culti Columbia U is dignifying a criminal, as Power Line explains,

Columbia and President Bollinger are a disgrace. They welcome to their campus a man who is a ringleader in the seizure of American hostages, a terrorist, the president of a terrorist regime, and the representative of a regime responsible at present for the deaths of American soldiers on the field of battle.

But that's not all; Imagine my surprise when I look again a few minutes ago and read,

UPDATE: The Iranian leader plans to go to Ground Zero on Monday at 10 AM with a Secret Service escort - over NYPD objections. (WABC-TV)

Ahmadinejad and the regime he represents hold the same radical, murderous philosophy that lead to the assasination of 3,000 on September 11, 2001. He will be laying a wreath for the murderous terrorists, not the victims.

I want to know, why are we even having this character touch American soil to begin with?

Because he's a head of state?

Well, then, if that is the reason, let's treat him like a head of state: Let's have Ahmadinejad indicted under the Genocide Convention, as Mitt Romney (pdf file) requested from the UN last Monday.

Iran is

intent on wiping Israel off the map,
financing Hezbolla,
arming Shiia terrorist in Iraq,
and swearing to develop nuclear weapons.

It doesn't take much more to recognize that we are at war with Iran.

I consistenly strive to keep a certain tone in this blog, but Michelle said it best,



Pamela has info on the rally.



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Let's ditch entertainment

• Iran and Venezuela continue their strategy for attacking the dollar,
• Iran's nuclear race (which will be coming to a Caribbean location near you, no doubt about it) is so alarming that the French are saying that "the world should prepare for a possible war against Iran",
• There's a fight over corruption at the World Bank, an organization that affects millions of people around the world,
• and some refer to the 9/11 attack as mean and nasty, shedding all insight into the war we're in.

So, what are the top stories?
OJ, and Sally Fields.

Don't email me blaming the cable networks, or anything other than people's own stupidity.

More blogging later.

Update, Tuesday, 18 September
Can you tell I'm sick of the OJ coverage?

Anbar Province government dedicates success vs. Al Qaeda to 9/11 victims

Not to be found at CNN:
Anbar Province government dedicates success vs. Al Qaeda to 9/11 victims

RAMADI, Iraq - When members of the government of Anbar Province met with President Bush last week, they presented him with a letter dedicating their success in wiping out Al Qaeda here to the victims of Sept. 11

The letter, which was obtained by the Daily News, was signed by Anbar Governor Mamoun Sami Rashid, Provincial Council Chairman Abdul-Salam Abdullah, and Sheik Sattar abu Risha, the sheik credited with beginning the Anbar Awakening.

"In the month when the terrorists attacked the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, we dedicate the victory of Anbar Province to the families of the victims who suffred that criminal act," the letter said, which was addressed directly to Bush.

"With the help of the president of the United States, we pledge to continue to cooperate and communicate with you to continue to get good results," the letter said.

(h/t Mike)

I Remember Joseph Angelini, Jr.

Joseph Angelini Jr., age 38 of Lindenhurst, NY, died heroically on September 11, 2001 in the World Trade Center terrorist attack. He was a New York firefighter with Ladder Co. 4

Joseph Angelini Jr.
A Firefighter Passionate About Family, Gardening

October 22, 2001

Joseph Angelini Jr. may have lived for the New York City Fire Department, but he didn't hang around when his tour ended.

"Gotta get home to the kids," he'd tell the guys in Manhattan's Ladder Co. 4 before heading to the 6:33 p.m. train to Lindenhurst.

Angelini's wife, Donna, has scheduled a memorial service for today to help 7-year-old Jennifer, 5-year-old Jacqueline and 3-year-old Joseph Angelini III to finally understand that he won't be coming home anymore.

"My son asks everyone he sees in uniform, 'Did you find my daddy, did you find my daddy?'" Donna Angelini said Friday.

The seven-year department veteran followed in the footsteps of his father, Joseph Angelini Sr., 63, who was the senior member of Brooklyn's Rescue Co. 1 and also perished in the World Trade Center attacks.

The younger Angelini, 38, was assigned to a house that protects New York's theater district. Its motto: "Never miss a performance."

But at home, he was a cook, craftsman and avid gardener who grew pumpkins, zucchini, eggplants and hot peppers and filled the house with the smells of pizza and focaccia.

"He was the air in my lungs, and now that air is taken away from me," Donna Angelini said. "I keep waiting for him to come off a 24 [hour shift] and come through the door and say, 'You wouldn't believe what happened to me today.'"

Angelini also is survived by his mother, Anne, a grandmother, Mary, sister Annmarie Bianco and brother, Michael, all of Lindenhurst; sister Mary Angelini of Washington D.C.; and by seven nieces and nephews.

A memorial service will be held today at 11 a.m. at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Roman Catholic Church in Lindenhurst.
-- Elizabeth Moore (Newsday)

CNN.com profile of Joe Jr.

Living Tribute to Joseph Angelini, Jr.

Joe's father, Joe Sr. also died that day:
The Veteran and His Son

Joseph J. Angelini Sr. and his son, Joseph Jr., were firefighters, and neither survived the twin towers' collapse. "If he had lived and his son had died, I don't think he would have survived," said Alfred Benjamin, a firefighter at Rescue Company 1 in Manhattan who was partnered with Mr. Angelini for the last six months.

The elder Mr. Angelini, 63, was the most veteran firefighter in the city, with 40 years on the job. He was tough and "rode the back step" like everyone else. His 38-year-old son, who worked on Ladder Company 4 on 48th Street, was on the job for seven years.

"If you mentioned retirement to Joey, it was like punching him," Mr. Benjamin said. Joseph Jr. was proud of his father's reputation and tried to copy him any way he could, said Joseph Jr.'s wife, Donna.

And they never gave up their tools. "Think about climbing 20 stories with bunker gear, ropes, hooks, halogens and other different types of tools and somebody wants to borrow a tool -- no way," Mr. Benjamin said. "You ask them what they need done and you do it for them. You carried that tool all the way up there, so you're going to use it. If they thought they were going to need a tool, they should have carried it up. Joey Sr. always said carry your own weight. He always carried his."

Joseph Jr. applied to the department 11 years ago. He got called seven years ago. "It was the proudest day for my father-in-law. It was a great opportunity," said Donna Angelini. "His father was a firefighter and he wanted to be one, too."

Mr. Angelini, who had four children, taught Joseph Jr. carpentry. Often they worked on projects together, including a rocking horse. Joseph Jr., who had three children, had started building a dollhouse for one of his daughters. Unfinished, it is sitting on his workbench.

Joseph Angelini, Sr.
The quilt

A brother, Firefighter Michael Angelini, was there as well, but, in a move that probably saved his life, left when asked to help carry out the body of the Rev. Mychal Judge, the fire department's chaplain.

From Newsday:

Between Funeral and 'Pile'

September 21, 2001

Michael's choice: remain with his mother, Anne, in Lindenhurst and support his family during the wake, today, and the funeral, tomorrow, for his father, New York firefighter Joey Angelini, 63; or, return to The Pile to continue searching for his missing brother, New York firefighter Joey Angelini Jr., 38.

Michael, 33, knew yesterday that his mother and Joey Jr.'s wife, Donna, his two sisters and his nieces and nephews needed him, needed a strong, grown, male Angelini nearby, perhaps as much or more than he needed to be nearer his brother. "It's hard to figure out what's the right place to be in," he said, already having decided to stay with the family. "I want so much to go back there."

Michael works for the Fire Patrol of New York, which operates under the New York Board of Underwriters, protecting the interests of insurers during and in the aftermath of commercial property fires. Wearing the same firefighting gear, except for the distinctive red helmet that denotes Fire Patrol, he responded to the World Trade Center disaster last Tuesday morning, as did his father, a 40-year FDNY veteran assigned to Rescue 1, and his brother, of Ladder Co. 4 in the Theater District. "We were all in the same area, and none of us knew it," he said.

In the lobby of one of the stricken towers, a fire supervisor suddenly ordered him out of the building. They passed firefighters who had just encountered the body of department chaplain Father Mychal Judge. Michael helped carry Judge away. "... but then my officer grabbed me and said, 'Let's go!'" he said. "We ended up a block or two north on West Murray Street."

Michael entertained a slender hope that his brother might have finished his tour early and gone home. He suspected otherwise, and he learned later that afternoon that Joey had done what his father would have done and what so many other firefighters did who were supposed to be ending their tours at 9 a.m. They went to work.

Once a jokester and a partygoer, Joey Jr. had undergone personality changes increasingly noticeable to Michael during the past seven years, since he had joined the department and Donna gave birth to the first of their three children, Jennifer. He had worked previously as an electrician with the Transit Authority. "I didn't want him to leave Transit," said his mother, "because they were about to make him a foreman. But, for some reason, he switched over to the fire department."

"Since then," Michael said, "I saw him taking on more and more of my father's traits. Before, we used to go out a lot, he and I. He was silly, funny. Now, getting him to go out was like pulling teeth. I tell old stories to guys he worked with, and they'll look at me like I'm talking about somebody they don't know. He had become so, like, straight. He just wanted to be with his family. He was showing more and more of that integrity, that seriousness, like my father.

"Three things were important to my father: his family, the church and the department, and I'm not sure in what order. My father was honest to a fault, religious. I remember walking back from the store with him. I was only little. He realized that the counter girl had given him 30 cents too much in change, and we had to walk all the way back. I mean, it was almost ridiculous. Joey was becoming more like that. It was good to watch, but it's hard to live up to."

The elder Angelini was in special operations that morning, and Michael hoped he too might have been sent elsewhere, but he really knew better. His father was legendary in the department for loving the work, for loving "to get dirty," for loving "making a grab [rescuing somebody]," for routinely walking out of a mostly extinguished inferno and lighting a cigarette while younger firefighters lay sprawled around him, exhausted.

Earlier this year, at a Holy Name Society communion breakfast tribute for his 40th anniversary as a firefighter, the short, wiry, gray-haired Angelini resisted efforts by his fellow firefighters to get him to wear more of his medals. "They convinced him to put on maybe a third of them," Michael said. "Then he said, 'Stop. I'm tired of pinning these on.'

"He kept them in the back of a drawer, in a box," Michael said. "He didn't tell us about half of them. He didn't talk about what he did. You would be eating dinner across from him and notice that he looked dif- ferent, like, strange, and then you would realize that his face was all red, and his eyebrows were completely gone, and his hairline had receded. He was burned. You would say, 'What happened to you?' And he would say, 'Aw, something flashed over me.'

"At the site, all week, guys were joking about him finding a pocket and eventually walking out. They said to me, 'He was probably buried in a void, and as soon as he runs out of cigarettes he's gonna come walking out.'"

Rescue workers found the body of Joey Angelini on Monday. He had been listed as missing since the day after the attack. Joey Jr. still is missing. After tomorrow's funeral Mass at Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Lindenhurst, Michael probably will return to the site.
--Ed Lowe (Newsday Columnist)

I Remember
Joseph Angelini, age 38
Lindenhurst, N.Y

Looking Back in Anger

Others remembering
Carl remembers Touri Hamzavi Bolourchi
Greta remembers Debra Lynn Gibbon
West Coast Chaos remembers Louis Calvin Williams III
Raven remembers Kevin Wayne Yokum
Zionist Weather Machine remembrs Lt. Michael Scott Lamana

Ed fisks Fisk

Robert Fisk is now a truther. While you would think that Fisk by now would have learned to research what he writes about he still doesn't, and claims,

I am talking about scientific issues.

While we all know the answer to Ed's question, Isn't Robert Fisk A Journalist?, Ed explains several of the points Fisk in his total ignorance raises in The Independent article.

The particular item that irks me the most is the "steel melts" argument. Get it through your head, Robert: In order for a building to collapse, steel doesn't need melt, all it needs is for its structural integrity to be compromised.

Anyway, before I go off on a rant, allow me to recommend Popular Mechanics'
Debunking the 9/11 Myths: Special Report
Popular Mechanics examines the evidence and consults the experts to refute the most persistent conspiracy theories of September 11
podcast
and book:


For further truther demolition, listen to Ed's podcast from last Tuesday Aug. 21.

UPDATE, Sunday 26 August
Via Dr. Sanity, Victor Davis Hanson:

Two observations come to mind.

First, we know why there is now a colloquial verb in English "to fisk."

Second, The "Even I" of Fisk's title should read "Especially I."

These are sad times in the West, but the inevitable wages of a quarter-century of elite postmodern thought.

No One Left To Lie To?

Ed asks, Did Clinton lie about targeting Bin Laden?, to which I say, the question should be, "when hasn't Clinton lied about anything?"

Indeed, Clinton never gave the CIA an assassination order on bin Laden. Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball have the whole story. Don Surber points out,

Michael Isikoff, the reporter who broke the Monica Lewinsky story only to have his editors at Newsweek spike the story, has caught Bill Clinton in another lie: He never authorized the killing of Osama bin Laden.

Perhaps it all depends on what the definition of "kill" is.

As AJ Strata rather inelegantly but accurately puts it,

So while he was being serviced by an intern in the Oval Office he [Clinton] let Bin Laden run free to finish his work on 9-11. The ultimate screwing of the American people - and he did not even offer us a drink.

WILLisms: Bill Clinton: Still The Lyingest Liar That Ever Lied.

Every time Bill shakes a finger, he lies:

A Jacksonian last year itemized the wake-up calls that Clinton ignored during his tenure.

If that's not enough to convince you of Clintons' (both of them, since they're running for a second round) perverse disregard for facts, I invite you to read Christopher Hitchens's book, No One Left To Lie To: The Values of the Worst Family. It'll shed some more light on the true character of the co-presidents.

Then there's Hillary's Peter Paul lawsuit (via Jeremayakovka, who's also remembering an anniversary of sorts).

But back to Bin Laden: The fact remains that Clinton didn't do squat because they didn't see Bin Laden as important as keeping his ass from being removed from office. And that's the truth.

Update, Friday 24 August:
Larwyn:

"The LEFT MUST LIE. Those bright enough to use the IDEOLOGY as an easy way to POWER HAVE TO BE AWARE OF THEIR LIES. The next level, knows that their are many lies but it really is FOR THE GREATER GOOD. The rest just believe what they have been taught and what is spun for them daily by the LSM. So nothing shocking about the new leaks proving how CLINTONS HAVE LIED."

Wretchard on terrorism, and the name of God

Richard Fernandez, Belmont Club's own Wretchard, was my podcast guest last Friday. Siggy co-hosted, and it was a most interesting podcast, as you would expect any conversation with them to be.

During our conversation, Richard raised a point on terrorism in South East Asia,

Terrorism in South East Asia is a little less deeply rooted in the culture of the area except insofar as it's rooted in the old traditions of piracy and banditry."

The conversation then led to the subject of failed societies. Siggy posts,

In fact, the terrorists aims are deliberately misrepresented- and that is in their interest and the interest of the those who appropriate those causes to serve their own ideologies. The terrorists and their supporters don’t want to see western values (i.e., democratic principles) and successes brought into the Muslim world because western values and successes are antithetical to the ideologies of terrorist and their supporters. Terror flourishes when societies fail. Introduce values that embrace individual freedoms and the freedoms that allow an individual to succeed, and support for terror vanishes.

The petri dish of terror is failure.

If the terrorists and their supporters and apologists really wanted to better the lives of hundreds of millions of oppressed people, they would use America western freedoms as models for success. Instead, terrorists and their supporters seek to destroy the freedoms that have authored success. They deliberately want to keep failed leaders and failed ideologies in place.

Are European societies surrendering themselves to failed ideologies? Today Richard has a post, The Nine Billionth Name of God, on the Dutch Catholic bishop who espouses the absurd notion that "people of all faiths refer to God as Allah to foster understanding". Richard says,

And that in a way, perfectly describes what has transpired in the post-everything world of Europe. The names of God did not matter to the jaded intellectuals until the last. Allah is the nine billionth name of God. And now the stars, without the slightest fuss, are going out.

By failing to understand that what we call God does matter, Bishop Tiny Muskens (that is his real name) has handed the enemies of Western values - to use Siggy's words - the petri dish of terror.

What to do against terror? In the podcast, Richard said,

One of the best things we can do is simply stand up...because it creates a nucleus around which a resistance is in place.

We didn't discuss the Dutch bishop on Friday's podcast, but listen to why it is important to understand how failed societies beget terror here.

Update
Great minds think alike: As I was posting this, Siggy was pondering Evil, On Borrowed Time
Update 2
Professor Bainbridge:

Words matter. To a person of faith, no word matters more than the name of God.

Jeff Kouba of Truth v. The Machine calls it Another Surrender of Breda

More at Memeorandum.

Podcasting with Gerard and Siggy

In yesterday's podcast, I had the distinct pleasure of talking to two of the best bloggers around, Gerard Vanderleun of American Digest and Siggy of Sigmund, Carl and Alfred. We talked about anti-Americanism, English cooking (including toast) and several other topics.

On the subject of education, we discussed a generation of students growing up without a real education on what it means to be an American:
Gerard:

Classical education's being replaced by presentism and relativism

On middle class values and conditions:
Siggy:

When you are part of an economic group, you become an oppressor.... People are driven to hatred, and then to violence, when they realize they can not control others with their beliefs

Gerard:

Exactly; this is called the Vision of the Annointed, which is one of the best books I've ever read which outlines this mindset. The problem in America is that you have this great divide, and again, you have three generations of a certain elite leftist ideology that feeds upon itself that is driving the educational system, and not only that, is driving social services as well.

We also talked about commercialand, the pattycake war, the grains that bind, and Bill and Hillary.

The podcast is such fun, it might even be fattening.

All that, and Siggy and I discussed the necktie dilemma - Is Siggy a necktie guy?

Will Gerard and Siggy revoke my blogging license since I'm a morning blogger?

Listen to the podcast and find out!



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A few thoughts by the beach

Every day when I first wake up I pray a Rosary in thanks, for I live a most privileged life filled with blessings.

Some of it may have to do with my name.

In Spanish, the name Fausta is most unusual for a woman. There are many Faustos, but women are usually named Faustina, which carries a softer connotation as the ina ending is also used as a diminutive. There are very few diminutive aspects to my personality, as those who know me well will tell you.

Faust in any language, to anyone familiar with Western opera and literature, connotes being gypped by unsavory characters. Frequently the person inquiring about my name is not fully familiar with the Faustian plot, and I have been asked if I was named after the devil. (I have developed a number of cutting remarks which have come in handy for those inquiries, thanks. Some day I'll post about that.) Classical scholars do know that Fausta was the wife of Constantine the Great, and she was up to no good. Probably becasue of this, many new visitors to this blog think Fausta is a pseudonym, when it actually is my real name.

I'm happy to report that I have not engaged in any Faustian dealings and that I was named after my grandma, a nice little old lady with flawless fair skin and snow-white hair, not after any conniving Roman empresses.

Fausta, on the other hand, is also an adjective in Spanish, meaning fortuitous, and also, happy in a splendid way. So I have been blessed with the life my name invokes.

Granted, mine is a simple mind and I derive great joy from the simplest things. Like stair-climbing, for instance.

Yesterday I went up and down four flights of stairs several times during the day. It was a hot and humid day and I was perspiring heavily (almost as much as that time I went to the aerobic yoga class, but not quite). To me it is a wonder that I can actually do that. It is an outright miracle. Several years ago I was really sick and despaired of ever doing such a simple thing again.

So there I was yesterday, going up the stairs for the umpteenth time (yes, the building has an elevator, but I wanted to go up the stairs because I could) and my heart was singing. No, it wasn’t palpitations. It was sheer delight. As I reached the fifth floor, I nearly said to a lady who was heading down, Look, I can do this!.

I'll never know if I woul feel that way if I hadn't been so ill. All I know is that I do now. I can not go back to find out, since there is no going back.

I derive a great deal of enjoyment from the most common things.

A fresh peach, eaten on the balcony overlooking the ocean.

The smell of the early morning.

The feel of cool clean linens.

The sight of a four year old hosing off the sand from his bellyboard.

The sound of a groom and his best man hugging each other in silence, just before they head to the wedding.

Blogging and podcasting are two other things I truly enjoy. Blogging and podcasting enrich my life in many wonderful and surprising ways. If I weren't blogging I would have never witnessed this wonderful event yesterday, for instance.

Yes, I have a most privileged life filled with blessings.

Since I'm on vacation I have had a chance to ponder these things while I haven't been keeping up on the news as much as usual, but I have heard from friends who do. Several of these friends I have met because of blogging, and they are very well informed.

They are expecting that things are not going to get better; indeed, they are expecting things to get a lot worse for a long time. Several of those friends are preparing for the worst.

They certainly have good reason to.

• A glance at the so-called newspaper of record shows the complicity of the mainstream media with crackpot Communist dictators.
• Academia has debased itself into a morass of dogmatism and moral blindness to the point where 87 faculty members of a major university judge three young men as guilty by "reason" of their race and background.
• Unprincipled secular societies in the West can not ever begin to understand fundamentalist Islamists because they are unable to fill a void with a void.
• We are in an existential struggle and Democrat candidates are running on the premise that there is no war at all. Listen up, democrats, look at what really happened in the Middle East. There have been 8,638 terrorist attacks since September 11, 2001. It's not Methodists doing it.
• The leadership in Washington is faltering in ever-worse ways. Both parties are out to find the most disastrous way in the least time.
• Even when I'm not keeping up with the news I know that the US and Israel will be arming Fatah. Have they lost their minds? We are arming our enemies. The enemy of my enemy will turn against us. They have before and will again.

So while I'm enjoying everyday pleasures and posting about them, I too have the temptation of wanting to go back to the the age of 1990s blindness, where a corrupt president was lauded by the media and where terrorist attack after terrorist attack was ignored and pushed aside because it didn’t fit the script of Clintonian happiness so many want to return to today.

They think that by bringing back the same-old same-old and singing the new campaign song it's all going to be Happy days are here again
The skies above are clear again
So lets sing a song of cheer again
Happy days are here again,as if the words alone would make it so. It didn't happen in the 1930s. Then, as now, appeasement didn't work. But oh, those words would make anyone feel so good.

The problem is, words alone are not cutting it. Being blessed with a name does not alone make for a happy life as of itself. Ignoring an enemy set on destroying our very culture where I can write these words will not win a war.

There are many things I don't know, but there is one thing I know: there is no going back.

Don't close your eyes to reality.

Enjoy every moment you have.

And pray.



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Second bloggers' conference call with Sen. John McCain

Sen. John McCain's speech at the Virginia Military Institute explains his position on the war:

"I just returned from my fifth visit to Iraq. Unlike the veterans here today, I risked nothing more threatening than a hostile press corps. And my only mission was to inform my opinions with facts. We still face many difficult challenges in Iraq. That is undeniable. But we have also made, in recent weeks, measurable progress in establishing security in Baghdad and fighting al Qaeda in Anbar province. To deny the difficulties and uncertainties ahead is an egregious disservice to the public. But as General Petraeus implements his plan to correct the flawed strategy we followed in the past, and attempts to spare the United States and the world the catastrophe of an American defeat, it is an equal disservice to dismiss early signs of progress. And now we confront a choice as historically important as any we have faced in a long while. Will this nation's elected leaders make the politically hard but strategically vital decision to give General Petraeus our full support and do what is necessary to succeed in Iraq? Or will we decide to take advantage of the public's frustration, accept defeat, and hope that whatever the cost to our security the politics of defeat will work out better for us than our opponents? For my part, I would rather lose a campaign than a war.

"However it ends, the war in Iraq will have a profound influence on the future of the Middle East, global stability, and the security of the United States, which will remain, for the foreseeable future, directly affected by events in that dangerous part of the world. The war is part of a broader struggle in the Arab and Muslim world, the struggle between violent extremists and the forces of modernity and moderation."
...
"It is impossible to separate sectarian violence from the war against al Qaeda. Al Qaeda is following an explicit strategy to foment civil war in Iraq. The only way to reduce and finally end sectarian violence is to provide greater security to the population than we have in the past, as we are doing now in Baghdad; to encourage Iraqis to abandon their reliance on local militias, and to destroy al Qaeda and other truly irreconcilable enemies of the United States and the Iraqi people.

"Our defeat in Iraq would constitute a defeat in the war against terror and extremism and would make the world a much more dangerous place.

Among the members of the Senate, Sen. McCain has a sense of urgency. He also understands the connection between al-Qaeda and Iraq, while the Democrats in the House want to banish the term terror.

During the bloggers' conference call he discussed progress in Iraq, the real possibility of ensuing chaos if the US leaves Iraq, and the role of bloggers

James Joyner was able to ask the first question:

I managed to get in first and put the above questions to him. Essentially, he says that he'll continue to give as many speeches as he can to convince the public. If he were president, he’d go on C-SPAN regularly and give specifics about our progress and work to change public opinion.

In follow-up, I noted that he's not president and that the guy who currently holds the post has not shown much aptitude for either specifics or public speaking. McCain responded that Bush is decent in the right setting and that he should probably hold a lot of small, informal meetings with reporters where he has a map and points out various spots on the map where we're having success.

David All took detailed notes on all the questions. David asked the last question, on the role of bloggers; Sen. McCain replies

"I feel strongly that bloggers are a vital part of the information technology infrastructure in the world. I freely admit to you that in 2000, I don’t know and didn't know if bloggers even existed. I can tell you that I would do two things: 1. Every two weeks I would have a regular briefing on C-SPAN about the good news that we’re seeing on the ground. The second thing would be a call with bloggers every two weeks about the same issue. Now sure, we wouldn't have time for every question, so maybe we would have to hold a raffle where we take the first 15 names out of the hat to ask their question. If I can make one editorial comment, I think the bloggers have a lot of maturing to do in a lot of areas. But just look at how far they've come. I believe historians will look back and note that bloggers have changed the way people communicate with each other and the entire world."

The call was only 1/2 hour long and I wasn't able to ask a question, but I am very encouraged to see that there's at least one Senator who's earnest on winning.

Rosie, meet Penn and Teller

Last week we watched this disgraceful spectacle:


As it turns out, Penn and Teller had addressed the 9/11 conspiracy theories in their program, Bullsh*t (language not suitable for work):


Why was I thinking about this today?

Because this was the first thing I saw when I turned on the TV this morning:
Traffic mess coming to Lower Manhattan

Starting next week traffic in and around Lower Manhattan is about to get a whole lot worse.

The northbound side of West Street between Liberty and Vesey Streets will be shut down for more than a month so that crews can search for the remains of more 9/11 victims.

Think about that, folks. FIVE AND A HALF years later, there are remains out there that still need to be found and laid to rest.

Update, Tuesday 10 April: Gagdad Bob fisks Rosie.